Dear Atlantataxexpert,

I am an H1B professional and my wife and myself filed jointly last year when she was on H4 and converted to F1 (Without stipend/W2). This year she has been on F1 all along and received stipend (Research Assistantship) from her university. I am not sure if FICA/Medicare/ other taxes were dedcuted from her paycheck or not.

Should we file jointly again this year? Can we use her tuition fees paid for the year as a write off? (In the range of about 6400$) or is it better to just file jointly. Your opinion is highly appreicated.

Regards,

Butterfly.

Butterfly:

Your wife is STILL exempt from FICA taxes, even though you filed jointly.

If you file jointly again, then, yes, you can claim the education credit or deduct the tuition.

Yes, file jointly.

Sorry, I didn't see any response here. Did I miss something.

Thank you so much. I was under the impression that now that she has gone on to F1 visa full time with stipend, we would be getting a much smaller tax return than last year. Guess I will still get almost the same as last year. Thank you so much for your response.

Butterfly

Glad to help!